[Vision2020] Followup: Climate Protection Agreement:US Conference of Mayors

[Ted Moffett]

All-

This statement from this web site made the case for local governments
addressing the global warming crisis so well I thought it was worth
emphasizing.  The reductions in snowpack is very relevant to Idaho:

http://www.seattle.gov/environment/climate_protection.htm

Some may view climate change as a remote global problem that is beyond the
capacity – and responsibility – of local governments to solve.  But when we
consider what makes our region so unique and naturally abundant, we realize
that global climate change is in fact a profoundly local issue – both cause
and effect.  It's here at home, especially in our cities, where we drive the
cars and use the power that generates global warming pollution.  It's our
choices as communities and individuals about energy supply and use,
transportation, solid waste, and land use that determine the future
trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions.
**
*Climate disruption - a global and local problem *
**
Scientists project that, due to rising temperatures, the Pacific Northwest
can expect higher temperatures, wetter winters, drier summers, reduced river
flows, increased coastal flooding and erosion and decreased forest health
and productivity.  Of particular concern is a change in our region's
snowpack. In the Pacific Northwest, we depend on our snowpack for much of
our region's drinking water supply, hydroelectricity, recreation, fish
habitat and irrigation. Since 1950, the Cascades snowpack has been reduced
by 50 percent and scientists predict that by 2050 climate change could
reduce snowpack by another 50 percent.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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